As the military surges
into Afghanistan and Pakistan and Xe Services LLC (formerly known as Blackwater)
and the CIA eke
into Pakistan and Yemen, the appetites of toadyish liberal analysts
demand their daily diet of Republican bogeys. The changeling base must
be kept in line, despite the lack of any change at all. Change you can
believe must continually slide seamlessly into belief you can change.

Barack Obama is a
soporific for liberals, but such a pill, the affected change rhetoric
that is, has to wear off after awhile, especially as reality piles up
like record dead soldiers in Afghanistan. So how do the Obamapologists
keep the righteous liberal indignation at a fever pitch?

Not to worry, for
a ready corps of reactionaries will rise to the occasion, such that the
wars, the bailouts, the foreclosures, and stagnant unemployment go on
without too much Democratic complaint. A right-wing nut like Ollie North
will surely come forth to say something ludicrous: the open acceptance
of gays in the military will lead
to pedophilia, bestiality, and necrophilia. Inordinate press coverage
will be given to a marginal cadre of Tea Partiers, who suggest that a
literacy test would have kept Obama out of office. Liberal and reactionary
bases will salivate at the prospect of a new culture wars as they beat
the dead horse of identity politics. Liberal indignation will be directed
it at the insane, and the insane will provide an obscene spectacle to
justify the indignation.

Am I suggesting that
the two capitalist parties and their media mouthpieces purposively conspire
to distract the American public? Not exactly: I'm saying that one needs
to examine the function of various persons and positions within
the political simulacrum, rather than focusing exclusively on what is
said. What function does a particular person or statement serve?
Who benefits from the statement? How are these mock battles systemically
structured and their actors to play parts written for them in advance?
How is the script enacted?

This is a matter worthy
of serious study. But the result is that capitalist business as usual
goes on without a hitch.